Find a Market for Foam #6

Foam Recycling Resources

Recycling In Action

One of the common questions people have about polystyrene foam recycling is “How do you transport the foam effectively?”

Since polystyrene foam is 90% air, it is too light to transport without compressing it into a more manageable size. Mil-tek in the United Kingdom has solved this efficiency problem by using presses and balers to crush the foam into smaller more efficient sizes. With their machinery they are able to reduce the volume of foam products by 95%!

From coast to coast, more and more cities around the United States are beginning to recycle polystyrene foam products in their communities. Some places do it by offering drop-off locations and some do it by collecting foam in their curbside recycling. One company in Rhode Island has expanded the reach of foam recycling by offering a new drop-off location available to residents throughout the state.

As schools and districts approach the future, they are continually presented with issues related to waste and budgets. A recent study of middle school students by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found that the average student generated over half a pound of waste per day. Only about a quarter of the waste generated was food waste, the rest was made up of wrappers, trays and other waste products.

The Foodservice Packaging Institute has announced the first recipient of their foam recycling grant program, Alpine Waste & Recycling of Commerce City, Colorado. The grant program was intended to support communities that needed assistance purchasing equipment to recycle polystyrene.

In many communities across Canada polystyrene recycling has taken root as an important piece to their recycling programs. From drop off facilities to curbside recycling programs, more people can recycle their foam than ever before. Now another community is bringing curbside foam recycling to their county.

In Colchester County in Nova Scotia, a countywide proposal to recycle polystyrene has been approved and will begin in the late summer of 2015. This decision will make recycling convenient for the residents of the county.